Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (June 09, 2020) for CSS, PMS

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June 09, 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. Economy to contract even more than estimated earlier: WB

• The World Bank forecast on June 8, 2020 that Pakistan`s economy would actually perform even worse than what previous estimates had warned about, citing the Covid-19 fallout.
• In its latest report, Global Economic Prospects, the Washington-based lending agency assesses the country`s economy was likely to go into the red this fiscal year and would be unable to recover even next year. It forecast a negative GDP growth of -2.6pc for the current fiscal year (2019-20) and -0.2pc during the next (20-21).
• `Pakistan (-2.6pc in FY2019/20) and Afghanistan (-5.5pc in 2020) are both projected to experience contractions as mitigation measures are anticipated to weigh heavily on private consumption. Key labor-intensive export sectors are expected to contract sharply and recover only slowly`, the Bank said in its report.

2. Punjab upgrades 1,227 elementary schools to high level

• The Punjab government on June 8, 2020 upgraded 1,227 elementary schools to high school level in 36 districts of the province.
• Chief Minister Usman Buzdar chaired a meeting in his office about school education sector reforms. Punjab Minister School Education Murad Raas and School Education Department Secretary Sara Aslam were present.
• Briefing the meeting, Mr Raas said 1,227 elementary schools had been upgraded to the high level without spending a penny.
• “The elementary schools that have been upgraded include 606 girls schools and 621 boys schools.”

3. Mobile subscribers hit 89m by 2019 end: study

• Mobile phones are the dominant form of digital connectivity in Pakistan, with 89 million unique subscribers as of the end of 2019, according to the GSMA an industry body representing mobile networks.
• In a report `Pakistan Progressing towards a fully fledged digital economy` launched on Monday, it suggested that to achieve digital ambitions and unleash the potential of the mobile economy, the country must facilitate access to high quality mobile broadband networks, affordable services and smartphones.
• `Fair and predictable regimes for spectrum licensing and tax are central to this for unlocking the huge growth potential, investment and societal benefits associated with a better connected, modern Pakistan that ensures no one is left behind,` the publication stated.

4. SC orders legislation to tackle virus pandemic

• The Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 8, 2020 stressed that the federal government needs to formulate a uniform strategy at the national level to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
• A four-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed, conducted hearing of a suo moto notice on federal and the provincial governments measures to combat coronavirus, and later deferred the proceedings in this matter for two weeks.
• The bench said that making law is essential for dealing with the coronavirus, therefore in its order dated 07-04-2020 it had noted its importance, but nothing has been done in this regard.

5. Lt. Gen. (Retd) Asif Ali breathes his last

• Lieutenant General (Retd) Asif Ali, who was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, succumbed to a short span of illness at Military Hospital Rawalpindi, on June 8, 2020.
• Late Lieutenant General Asif Ali was a close relative of Director Administration Nawa-i-Waqt Group, Lieutenant Colonel Syed Ahmed Nadeem Qadri. The Lieutenant General served the Engineering Corps and was regarded as one of the most competent military officer.
• He also served as an instructor at National Defence University and Command and Staff College. He also served as Director General of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) Survey of Pakistan Military Engineering Corps Workers and Rehabilitation. General Asif Ali also worked as the Engineer in Chief in Pakistan Army. In acknowledgment of his invaluable services, General Asif was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military).

6. UK denounces toppling of slave trader`s statue

• The British government on June 8, 2020 denounced the toppling of a slave trader`s statue during anti-racism protests, urging campaigners to use democratic means for change rather than breaking the law.
• But the action won some support, including from the city`s mayor, against a backdrop of public pressure to reexamine representations of the country`s colonial past.
• Demonstrators pulled down the 18-foot bronze monument to Edward Colston in the southwest English city of Bristol and threw it into the harbour on Sunday.

7. Democrats unveil police reform legislation

• Democrats in the US House of Representatives and the Senate unveiled a bill on June 8, 2020 which seeks to overhaul policing in the United States with reforms aimed at curbing racism in law enforcement.
• The proposed legislation follows the death in police custody of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last month that sparked worldwide protests and calls for police reforms in the United States.
• The bill, titled the `Justice in Policing Act`, would ban chokeholds, including the kind used by a police officer in Minneapolis on Floyd, as well as no-knock warrants in drug cases, as was used in the incident leading to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.

8. Last coronavirus patient in NZ defeats deadly disease

• New Zealand on June 8, 2020 declared victory over the pandemic, even as global cases topped seven million and deaths mounted in Latin America.
• The number of Covid-19 fatalities has now passed 403,000 worldwide since the disease emerged in China last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralysing economies.
• But even the hardest-hit countries are lurching back to a new kind of normal, with bars and restaurants coming back to life and travel restrictions lifted from London to Brussels to Moscow

9. UAE backs Egypt peace initiative in Libya

• The United Arab Emirates on June 8, 2020 backed an Egyptian peace initiative in Libya after a series of military victories by forces loyal to Tripoli’s UN-recognised government against strongman Khalifa Haftar.
• Haftar — who is backed by the UAE and Egypt — also supported the ceasefire proposal, said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday following talks in Cairo.
• UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted on Monday that the initiative “strengthens the Arab and international momentum for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the return to a political track”.

10. Experiment reveals ingredients of life on Earth & Mars

• A new study reveals that asteroid impact sites in the ocean may possess a crucial link in explaining the formation of the essential molecules for life.
• The study discovered the emergence of amino acids that serve as the building blocks for proteins — demonstrating the role of meteorites in bringing life’s molecules to earth, and potentially Mars.
• There are two explanations for the origins of life’s building molecules: extraterrestrial delivery, such as via meteorites; and endogenous formation.

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